CISR's Peer Support Training Programs provide training to victims of conflict and trauma to become counselors to others who are also suffering. Working with local partner organizations, CISR’s peer support specialist Cameron Macauley customizes training materials so they conform to the cultural and educational background of the trainees. Stories and examples taken from actual survivors are used to teach techniques in counseling. Special exercises are designed to teach counseling skills to trainees who do not read or write. Recent trainings have taken place in Burundi, Colombia, Rwanda, Uganda and Vietnam.

"We are all survivors, and surviving has made us stronger." Adelite Mukamana, IBUKA's Director of Psycho-social Rehabilitation

Reslience Workshops

Pathways to Resilience (P2R), is a workshop providing an innovative regional leadership and training program for survivors of landmines and explosive-ordnance injuries in the Middle East. The workshop helped survivors make meaning of past events, learn to manage emotions in new ways, find social support, personal strength and inspiration. Program activities promoted resilience using experience-based learning followed by reflective observation.

"I had many problems, but I came to Lebanon and participated in this meeting, and I am able to overcome a large number of challenges. I can now recover from the psychological crises I have suffered, which limited my hopes and ambitions." - Darine Omri, a P2R participant from Yemen

Mine/ERW Risk Education

"We Love Life" is a theatrical play and creative arts program aimed at raising awareness and preventing young people from taking risks that result in explosive remnants of war related accidents. This comprehensive mine-risk education experience, which targets schools in Jordan, meets international and Jordanian mine action standards and has been developed in consultation with a team of experienced child psychologists.

In 2009, nine performances of the play were held with great success and reached nearly 6,000 children and local community members in the landmine and unexploded ordnance threatened provinces of northwestern Jordan. In 2010, additional performances and art activities reached an even larger sector of the Jordanian school population. Altogether, a total of nearly 16,000 students directly benefitted from the performances and arts activities in 2009-2010.

In 2014, We Love Life creative arts programs were held in three schools in Jordan providing ERW risk education to 250 Jordanian children and 250 Syrian refugee children. Train-the-trainer workshops were also held to train adult Syrian refugees how to teach ERW risk education to community members.

In 2014 CISR's subject-matter experts provided capacity-building training for disabled people’s organizations (DPO) in central Vietnam. The training provided DPOs with the skills to conduct a public relations campaign promoting the rights of people with disabilities and the obligations of the government.